Born in Adriani (Drama) in 1969, he was taught by Kostas Meimaroglou first and then Kostas Papatriantafyllopoulos. He was an Athens School of Fine Arts student of Chronis Botsoglou and he, moreover, studied engraving under the teaching of Thanassis Exarchopoulos (1989-1994). Between 1993 and 1998 he was in Spain to delve into the Spanish School of Painting at the Prado Museum. Works of his are included in various private collections in Greece, Spain and the UK. He resides and works in Athens and Istanbul.

1994 Exhibition of the Arts School Graduates, National Gallery, Athens

1990 Artists house, Athens

1986 NELE, Town Hall, Thessaloniki

Opening a window to Constantinople

They say that every artistic approach is the beginning of an adventure. The portrait of every place across time is always present before us but it is unseen because it is hidden under an invisible mantle, which the artist has to lift, in order to present it as a reflection in the mirror of his own view.

Constantinople: city of myth and history, the past and the present. The quest for it is difficult. For us Greeks, approaching it leaves a bittersweet taste. However, when emotion leads the way, it can be transformed into expression in no time. Then the travel to conquer it starts, with a genuine sense of responsibility. This is the way followed by Konstantinos Kerestetzis.

He must have been helped in this direction by his Asia Minor roots, which guided him in Constantinople to express himself through his art and record his own emotional history.

Being a painter of tender sensitivity, he tried to render pictures and variations of shade, using the sea and light as a focus that helped him in his quests. Every vivid paintbrush reflects the passion of youth, lyricism and recollection. This personality mix of Konstantinos Kerestetzis, with its expressions and implications, is transformed into energy, which is received by the beholder of his work.

Through an artistic itinerary, he breathes life into time and makes the viewer sense the hours and the moments he lived throughout his course. His colour variations reveal pictures hovering in a sweet light and, sometimes, in the peculiar mist of the Bosphorus. Some other times they make you feel the humidity of a narrow road in a decaying area, leading through a destroyed cobbled road to the grandeur of that unparallel building, the “Great School of the Nation”, a school of letters and arts standing the ravages of time for over 550 years. The painter discovers its imposing presence, and its splendor leaves a strong imprint on his soul, like an indelible seal. Then, moved by the beauty of its architecture, he uses the most beautiful palette to render, in the most sincere of manners, the purple of its masonry.

The realistic rendering of the past is continuously interwoven with the present. Thus, breathing the breeze of an enchanting sea he watches the boats swinging on its surface and its briny foam caressing the houses on the shores of the Bosphorus. A gallop of love awakens emotions to breathe life and romantic sensitivity into his works.

He uses this movement of his feelings to render in the most realistic and revealing manner that major achievement of Byzantine culture, “Hagia Sophia”, the church of the Holy Wisdom of God. Its unique dome is set in fireless fire by the setting sun and seems to hover in the air. Besides, by applying light paintbrushes, the artist tries very skillfully to mitigate the signs of the conversion of the building into a mosque.

A nostalgic eye caresses the legendary station of the Orient Express. A mystic exchange, an oriental aura that pervades the dark streets, with Turkish carpets emerging as a soothing view on his paintings, stimulate fantasy and convey meaningful messages of immutability and perpetuity.

I wish to congratulate the noble Konstantinos Kerestetzis for managing to open a window to Constantinople and lifting the curtain of time to bring to surface the beauties and contrasts of a culture now seeking its identity between the East and the West. I would also like to thank him warmly because by his paintings he managed to stir strong emotions in my soul and awaken latent feelings, bringing back to life before my eyes my birthplace, the enchanting Constantinople.

I hope his future reflections will continue to unveil his recognized innate talent, contributing fruitfully to his next endeavours.